If you are primarily wanting to produce food, the jumbos are what you want. Large and vigorous, they excel at producing gourmet quality eggs and meat. Most people that try quail eggs agree that they taste even better than chicken eggs. They are reputed to be healthier also, but I don’t know if those claims are accurate.
These have genes for “rouge”, making them much lighter in color than the Pharoah. This line is from Myshire, a well known quail farm in Ohio, and these are also Jumbos. The rouge gene is sexlinked and by crossing this line with the JMF Jumbos, I will be able to sex the chicks at hatch and also expect improve production from these hybrids.
I maintain these as a pure line. They are also the male side of the sexlinked hybrids. These and the JMF wilds are very similar in size, productivity and temperament. They really only differ in color.